To stop the (Tears)
by myanko92
Summary: Tatsuki is hurt, and Orihime is crying. Ichigo, who feels helpless, tries to stop her tears.


This is a semi-AU story that is set sometime during the 17 month time skip. It's AU in that Orihime doesn't have powers, so she can't heal Tatsuki; but the events in Soul Society and Hueco Mundo have still happened. It's supposed to be just a cute little moment between Ichigo and Orihime. :)

**_EDIT (Jan._**_ **2015): **Thanks to **nypsy **and **jylener22 **for pointing out the plot holes in the introduction! I hope this version makes more sense! ^v^_

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach!

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Ichigo had never seen her really cry before; not ever. Not at school, even the time she'd tripped and fallen down the stairs; not when they'd gone to Soul Society to rescue Rukia, though she _had_ teared up when she'd seen that he wasn't hurt after his fight with Byakuya; not when she'd been severely injured by Yammy; not during Ichigo's fight with Ulquiorra; not even when Ulquiorra had died.

Okay, she _had_ cried during his fight with Grimmjow, when she had asked him not to get hurt anymore; and she had also cried after Ulquiorra had turned into ash and disappeared on the wind, but— well, he'd been a little distracted both times, and hadn't had much chance to pay attention to her tears.

But now she was crying _right there_ in the hallway of his house, face buried in her knees as she shook with muffled sobs, and the sight of it stopped him in his tracks.

"Inoue?" he asked hesitantly.

She didn't reply, maybe didn't hear him as she huddled in the corner, on the floor; hugging her knees tightly to herself, her shoulders shuddering spasmodically as she tried to stifle her sobs. A fierce pang shot unexpectedly through his heart at the sight of her abject misery, and he felt frustratingly helpless.

What should he do?

What _could_ he do?

"Inoue?" he tried again, going over to stand in front of the crying girl, his hands feeling out of place at his sides.

After a long moment of half-muffled sniffs and hiccupy sobs, she lifted her head to look up at him while she gulped at her tears, trying to regain some composure but not quite succeeding. Intermittent sobs shook her body and tears continued to roll down her face as she attempted to blink them away. Even though her face was a soggy mess of tears and snot from a running nose, somehow she still managed to look cute; the bangs that framed her face sticking to the wetness on her cheeks in little wisps of caramel, and her long lashes a similarly wet caramel brown. Ichigo tried to smile encouragingly at her, but her pain was obviously reflected in the set of his eyes and brows.

"It's okay," he told her. "Tatsuki will be fine."

She just continued to stare up at him with woebegone eyes as a silent wave of fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Seriously," he assured her, his eyes gentle. "Oyaji says she's stabilized, and we're transferring her to Karakura General Hospital tomorrow, where she can fully recuperate. With her will and strong metabolism, he says she'll be up in no time."

"Really?" she attempted to say, but nothing came out. She cleared her throat a little and tried again, but her voice was still small and quavery. "Really?"

"Really," he nodded, smiling warmly at her, pleased that she had finally stopped crying enough to respond to him, but was completely nonplussed when her face crumpled anew.

"Th-thank g-goodness," she hiccuped. "Thank goodness…" Burying her face in her knees again, she sobbed with relief.

Ichigo looked down at the back of her bowed head and smiled a little ruefully. At least she was crying happy tears now. He still didn't know quite what to do, but he had done _something_, and that was what mattered.

As he continued to watch her a little longer, he instinctively reached out and put his hand on her head, patting it like he'd used to do to Karin and Yuzu when they'd been small and were crying.

He knew what a girl's hair felt like; after all, he had two younger sisters. But somehow Orihime's hair felt exceptionally soft and silky.

His face turning crimson at the audacity of what he'd just done, he abruptly turned and stomped away, not even aware that behind him, Orihime had stopped crying.

.

.

_Owari_

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**A/N: **_I wrote this __December 2011, as a cute little fluff oneshot. I hope you liked it! __^v^ The image that started this story was Orihime crying and Ichigo reacting to it because he'd never seen her cry before. But as I edited it for posting I realized that she actually _has_ cried in front of him, multiple times... -_-;;; Time for frantic brainstorming to fix that little plot hole! But I think it worked out in the end. :) Again, I hope you enjoy it, and I would love it if you could review! :D Thanks for reading!_

_Tatsuki's fine by the way; she just got hit by a car… or something like that..._

_The reason for the...unique title is that I was thinking of how rain is often a symbol of sadness in Bleach, and a common them of Ichihime stories is 'stopping the rain'. Well, in this story, Ichigo, in this case, is literally 'stopping the rain' by stopping Orihime's tears. So rain=tears, but since doesn't allow strikethroughs in their titles, I just parenthesized 'Tears'. I thought it looked rather...Japanesey. Or Kubo-esque. ^v^;; So that's where that came from. :)_


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